SIR ISAAC NEWTON. 263 



the kaleidoscope, which our ludi-magister (most aptly 

 named for that turn) had just received from London, was North 

 confided to our care. We remember the committee of 

 conservation, and the regulation that each boy should, at 

 the first round, have the uninterrupted enjoyment of the 

 treasure for three minutes ; and we remember, further, that 

 we never could have believed it took so very short a time 

 to boil an egg. A fig for Jupiter and his satellites, and 

 their inhabitants too, if any ! What should we have 

 thought of Galileo when placed by the side of the in- 

 ventor of this wonder of wonders, who had not only made 

 his own telescope, but his own starry firmament ?'.... 



6 Since his own scientific sensibilities are keen, . . . 

 we hope they will make him fully feel that he has linked 

 his own name to that of his first object of human rever- 

 ence for as long as our century shall retain a place 

 in literary history. This will be conceded by all, how 

 much soever they may differ from the author in opinions 

 or conclusions; and though we shall proceed to attack 

 several of Sir D. Brewster's positions, and though we 

 have no hesitation in affirming that he is too much of a 

 biographer and too little of an historian, we admire his 

 earnest enthusiasm, and feel as strongly as any one of his 

 assentients the service he has rendered to our literature.' 



The two biographers had differed in their estimate of 

 Newton's religious belief, Sir David Brewster, in the first 

 instance, maintaining his orthodoxy, c by which,' Mr. De 

 Morgan says in his Review, ' we mean a belief of as much 

 as the Churches of England and Scotland hold in common.' 

 He himself believed Newton to be an Arian, and the MS. 

 creed of Newton found in the Portsmouth papers showed 

 that he was right. M. Biot, who had been a worshipper of 

 Newton early in the century, wrote to Mr. De Morgan at 

 the time, expressing his satisfaction and concurrence in 

 the statements of the North British Review. He received 

 from my husband a copy of the memoir, with which he 

 was greatly pleased. The author and M. Biot had met 



